Banking Confusion

[InstImpres]

This is a first for me, I have points to bank!! Guess I should have sprung for weekend points instead of a value resort

I just spoke with MS and either she was confused or I am confused.
Here's my story and I'll go with 200 points as the membership to make it easy.
February use year.

Right now I have until 10/31 to bank 50%, I have 35 points unused at the moment

I am holding a 50 point reservation for January which I may need to cancel.

I thought I could bank my 35 points now and the 50 points next month when I know for sure what is going on.

The woman told me you can only use 1 banking window, so if I bank now, I must complete all my banking for the year by 10/31, anything else would be use or lose and I can't use my 25% window. I can't find it spelled out this way in the guidebook.

Hope this makes sense and someone has experience with this otherwise I'll just have to call again or plan an extra trip

TIA

 

[Chuck S]

You may bank multiple times, but the total is cumulative. In otherwords, if you have a 200 point contract, and bank 25 points during the 100 window, then have points left, you can only bankanother 25 points in the 25% banking window...for a total of 50 banked points (or 25% of your contract).

So, if you bank 35 points now, in your 50% window, you can only bank 15 more points in your 25% window for a total of 50 points on a 200 point contract.

Unless MS has changed the banking rules. But it sounds lke the person you spoke to is confusing "banking" and "Transferring". We are limited to ONE account to account transfer per use year.

 

[Dean]

You should call back and check for sure. My guess is that MS was correct but not wording it correctly. That you would be in your 25% window by the time you needed to make a decision on your Jan reservations and that you would not be able to bank the remaining points. But as pointed out, there's no limit on how many times you can bank only on the number of points involved.

 

[InstImpres]

Thanks, sounds like I need to figure out what is going on quickly.

 

[Caskbill]

If you still need help, then instead of making it easy by using your sample numbers, you can post the actual contract size, use year month, previous banking done (if any), remaining points, and points for your upcoming reservation, and we can then tell you exactly what your choices are.

 

[skr8pn]

I don't want to take over anybody's thread but I just can't help but ask. As a non-owner who is looking into a future contract I want to understand it all before I even ask about purchasing.

So I understand the general idea of banking and borrowing. So lets say I have a 100 point contract, UY Jan. I use 36 points in March. I have 64 points left that I couldn't squeeze a vacation out of and I call MS and bank them puppies. But from the sounds of it all 64 don't carry over.

The next question is at what point can I borrow? Is it 1 year from my UY? or can it be 3 months out.

It's starting to sound like a cell phone, use it or lose it... and I think I'll be OK as long as I understand it going in.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I don't want to take over anybody's thread but I just can't help but ask. As a non-owner who is looking into a future contract I want to understand it all before I even ask about purchasing.

So I understand the general idea of banking and borrowing. So lets say I have a 100 point contract, UY Jan. I use 36 points in March. I have 64 points left that I couldn't squeeze a vacation out of and I call MS and bank them puppies. But from the sounds of it all 64 don't carry over.

The next question is at what point can I borrow? Is it 1 year from my UY? or can it be 3 months out.

It's starting to sound like a cell phone, use it or lose it... and I think I'll be OK as long as I understand it going in.

You can bank anytime up to 60 days before the end of your use year. The problem is, you can only bank up to 100% of your points by the 6th month of your use year. If you only banked 25% of your points by that time, and then wanted to bank more, you would need to be within the 50% banking window to do that (assuming the 100 point contract). The banking is cumulative. So if you are into the 50 % banking window, and you have already banked 25% of your points, you could only bank another 25%.

Borrowing is something that is done at the time you make a reservation. Say you are booking at your 11 month booking window, and you are booking a reservation that takes more points than you have in the use year your ressie is in. You would then borrow the points from the next use year (from the ressie use year) at the time you book.

 

[MILLZ]

SO IS IT BEST TO BANK ALL POINTS AT THE 100% TIME THEN BORROW FROM THE NEXT YEAR IN ORDER TO NOT LOSE THEM OR IS THIS STRATEGY TOTALLY ASSANINE

 

[mochabean]

SO IS IT BEST TO BANK ALL POINTS AT THE 100% TIME THEN BORROW FROM THE NEXT YEAR IN ORDER TO NOT LOSE THEM OR IS THIS STRATEGY TOTALLY ASSANINE

This really gives you less flexibility, because banking/borrowing puts points into a use year from which they cannot be later moved.

 

[mochabean]

The woman told me you can only use 1 banking window, so if I bank now, I must complete all my banking for the year by 10/31, anything else would be use or lose and I can't use my 25% window. I can't find it spelled out this way in the guidebook.

When MS says you can only use 1 banking window, that might be correct but ambiguous. You can't bank more points than the latest window you use allows. So if you bank multiple times in your 100% window and then want to bank more in your 50% window, the total banked for all of your banking transactions cannot be more than 50% of your points. Likewise if you bank multiple times in your 100% window and then later in your 50% window, and then want to bank some more in your 25% window, then the total banked for all of your banking transactions cannot be more than 25% of your points.

The best way to ensure you don't lose any points would be to cancel your 50 point reservation, and bank 85 points now. Then next month when you are sure what is going on in January, make the reservation using borrowed points. Unless you have a BW Standard or BW view, January is a pretty slow time and you should be able to get a room somewhere 2 months out. Call and ask about availability for that time so you have some sort of idea of what is available.

Another possibility is, if you later find out you can't go in Jan, don't cancel and lose the points, but rent them instead.

 

[mochabean]

I don't want to take over anybody's thread but I just can't help but ask. As a non-owner who is looking into a future contract I want to understand it all before I even ask about purchasing.

So I understand the general idea of banking and borrowing. So lets say I have a 100 point contract, UY Jan. I use 36 points in March. I have 64 points left that I couldn't squeeze a vacation out of and I call MS and bank them puppies. But from the sounds of it all 64 don't carry over.

The next question is at what point can I borrow? Is it 1 year from my UY? or can it be 3 months out.

It's starting to sound like a cell phone, use it or lose it... and I think I'll be OK as long as I understand it going in.

You could bank all 64 as long as you do it by the end of June (6 months into your use year).

 

[JimMIA]

SO IS IT BEST TO BANK ALL POINTS AT THE 100% TIME THEN BORROW FROM THE NEXT YEAR IN ORDER TO NOT LOSE THEM OR IS THIS STRATEGY TOTALLY ASSANINE

I agree with Mochabean -- that particular strategy will give you less flexibility. However, we use something similar (just not as extreme) to avoid losing unused points.

In our particular situation, we don't worry much about the 100% deadline. We have an October UY and tend to take November or December trips, so we've often used 50% or more within the first 3-4 months of our UY. So when our 100% deadline rolls around, we're good. I look at it, but haven't banked in the 100% timeframe yet.

However, before June (our 50% deadline) comes, I'm usually banking whatever is not already booked. That's typically only 10-20% of our points, but I bank them so I don't forget.

Then if we're taking a summer trip (usually there's one small one), we borrow for that. There is obviously more risk borrowing late in your UY, but we haven't had any problems, because our summer trips are much less likely to be canceled.